Your Harsh Words
by QuietShipper
Summary: Levy McGarden is startled by the sudden development of feelings for a certain Iron Dragon Slayer. She doesn't know how to speak her feelings to him in fear of being rejected. Will these two carry mutual feelings? Will they be able to hold it together during devastation? Or will they fall apart?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! Thank you for clicking on this story! This is my first fanfiction. These characters are not mine, they belong to Hiro Mashima. Thank you very much! Enjoy!**

Levy never regretted her decision to forgive him. Even after what he had done to her team and herself. She still bore the scars of it, but had somehow come to see them as a hurdle that she had overcome by forgiving him. Sure, he was scary, conceited, stubborn, and had violent tendencies, but beneath that scarred skin and a multitude of shiny piercings, there was an incredibly soft heart that cared. It had taken a while before she had come to be comfortable in his presence. From the first time he had come to Fairy Tail as a member, where she hid behind a table in fear and trembled like a freezing deer, to now, where she could openly speak and joke with him without any remaining fear.

Levy had no idea she was being spoken to until a small and familiar hand was laid on her shoulder. She jumped in surprise and looked up only to see Lu-chan behind her. She smiled brightly at the blonde.

Lucy smiled back knowingly, "You know, if you keep on staring at him like that, people will begin to think you like Gajeel." She leaned forward and whispered this in her ear, knowing full well that the Iron Dragon Slayer had extremely good hearing.

The man in question was sitting at the bar, looking surly as always. He was most likely drinking something strong to settle himself down from the recent job he had just come back from.

Levy sighed, "I don't know what's wrong with me lately Lucy. I've been having strange feelings in the pit of my stomach, and I feel dizzy if he comes too close, my heart goes crazy when I look at him for to long."

"Levy…come on, you read all of those novels, you have to at least suspect what's going on." Lucy gave her a wide, knowing grin while the cerulean haired mage thought long and hard. When it finally dawned on her, she let out a gasp of surprise.

"Y-you don't think…I don't…oh god." Her pale cheeks went impossibly red, "I have a crush on Gajeel…"

"And by the looks of things, it's bad." Lucy giggled, covering her mouth.

Levy laid her head on the table, trying to hide her blush.

"Oi shrimp, are you running a fever?" Gajeel's rough voice boomed above her. His large hand descended on the back of her head and lifted it up, ruffling her already wild hair even further.

Levy let out a squeak and fell backwards onto the floor, "I-I'm fine!" she stuttered, scrambling to her feet, "I have to…I have to do things!" she gasped out and nearly sprinted out of the guild as fast as her short legs could carry her. Tears sprang unbidden to her eyes as she ran back to her dorm room in Fairy Hills. She opened the door to her room quickly and went inside, shutting and locking the door behind her.

'Great! Just great!' she said in her head, 'he would laugh in my face if he knew. Why does my heart have to be so weird?!' she tugged at her light blue locks, furiously biting her lip until she broke the soft skin. She winced slightly and sucked on the sensitive tissue, crawling into bed, surrounded by her mountains of books. She laid there until three in the morning and then she dragged herself out of bed and into a hot shower. She stood under the nearly scalding spray and scrubbed herself until she was pink skinned. She blushed again as she washed her hair, remembering his light touch on her scalp. She shook off the feeling and got out, staring at herself in a mirror. Small breasts and wide hips…that's what she had to offer. She briefly wondered if Gajeel preferred bigger breasts to smaller. She shook her head quickly and ran a hand through her locks, "I'm being silly…snap out of it Levy." She crossed her room to her dresser and grabbed a pair of panties, pink and white striped with a little pink bow on the front. She pulled on a long gray t-shirt that served a mini dress of sorts because of her short stature and promptly crawled back into bed and passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

She was suddenly awakened the next morning by a hard thump against her window. She sat up and looked around, getting up and going to see what had hit her window. At first she didn't see anything until a dark shape jumped in front of it. She shrieked in surprise and jumped backwards, stumbling and falling over a stack of nearby books. She looked up at the window, trying to make out the figure. It wasn't very large, had black fur and one large scar across one eye.

"Pantherlily! You scared the hell out of me!" she got up and opened the window for the Exceed.

Lily chuckled and hopped into her room, "Forgive me. But Gajeel has been waiting to speak with you at the guild." He sat atop one of her many stacks of books, "he is going to ask you on a job." He held out a flyer to her and she took it and looked down at it, the reward was 200,000 jewels for the capture of several criminals and a guild less mage who was causing chaos in Balsam Village.

"Thanks Lily, I'll meet him at the train station in an hour." She gave the Exceed a warm smile and watched as he gave a little salute and left out the window, flying back towards the guild. Levy closed the window and proceeded to get dressed in tan shorts, a black tank top accented with a bright red headband to hold her unruly hair in place. She packed for a few days, putting several thick novels into her bag before zipping it shut and hauling it over her shoulder. She wobbled slightly at the weight of the books but steadied herself against a nearby bookshelf before hurrying to the train station.

She easily weaved her way through the throngs of people before waiting on the appropriate platform to Balsam Village. She hopped up and down a few times to make sure she was on the right platform before looking around for Gajeel. He was easy enough to spot. He stood in the corner with his arms crossed, wearing a long sleeved brown tunic with metal studs on the collar and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a belt lashed around his waist. The tunic was tattered and frayed around the edges and cut short in the front, giving him his signature rough look. He wore white fitted pants and dark boots. To top it all off he wore a white and red headband to keep his long black hair out of his face.

Levy made her way over to him, trying not to stare as she did so. When she stood in front of him, she gave him her normal bright and happy grin even though her heart was fluttering wildly.

***Gajeel***

'Shit…' Gajeel thought to himself, Shrimp was giving him that cute smile of hers again. He felt his cheeks light up with a brief flood of color. She was so cute that he could barely force himself not to grab her and press her against the wall behind him and play rough until she was screaming his name in pleasure. He shook away the naughty thoughts and ran a hand through his hair, trying to look calm and distant as always, "Feeling better today, shrimp?" his red eyes flicked to her hazel ones, giving her a smirk.

She looked startled and confused by the question, "y-yes I'm better today." She looked around, "Is Lily going to be joining us?"

"No, he said he had other matters to attend to and he could trust us to be fine on one mission together." He shrugged unknowingly, "guess it's going to be you and me shorty." He flashed another smile her way as the whistle for the train rang through the station. He picked up his bag and climbed onto the train, with Levy close to his side. He stowed his bag on the overhead compartment and the proceeded to watch Levy struggle doing the same with her own bag.

Without thinking her gripped her hips and lifted her off the ground with ease. She squeaked and tensed up, hurriedly shoving her bag in the compartment and then hurriedly asked to be put down on the ground. Gajeel could hear her heart racing and a sweet smell coming off of her skin, it was enticing. A deep rumble of a purr could be felt in his chest but fortunately, was too low for Levy to hear. Gajeel put her down and ruffled her hair before he sat down.

Levy grabbed a book before sitting across from him. He watched as she cracked the book and crossed her legs unaware as the train began to move. However, Gajeel did notice. His stomach twisted violently with the oncoming symptoms of motion sickness. He groaned, paling as they picked up speed, his normally tanned skin looked clammy.

***Levy***

Levy looked up from her book and gasped, "I'm so sorry Gajeel! I forgot you get motion sick!" she dropped her book to the side and tried to keep the Dragon Slayer from expelling his morning meal on the floor. She took his wrist and felt the tendons and sinews under the bronzed skin. She pressed down on a pressure point on his wrist and massaged it for ten minutes before asking him to take a breath.

She heard him take a shaky one and then asked, "Is your stomach settling?" She waited for a response of some kind.

Gajeel barely nodded his head, not trusting himself to speak at that very moment. An older woman came around with refreshments and she gratefully purchased a bottle of water and had him sit up, shutting the blinds on the window. She continued to rub the point on his wrist for some time, sitting on the floor beside his legs. Finally after thirty minutes she looked up at him.

His piercing red eyes were staring at her and she blushed fiercely under his gaze, unable to move. She heard him move closer, bending towards her slowly and cautiously.

'What is he doing?!' she shrieked in her head, "is he going to kiss me?!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone! Happy New Year! Let's make it a good one okay? :) I absolutely love constructive criticism. Please leave a review down below. It motivates me to write more and to make my writing better!**

 **I do not own these characters. They belong to Hiro Mashima.**

He descended towards her, their faces less than 2 inches apart. Her heart was pounding so hard that she was afraid that it was going to leap out of her chest. She looked into his red eyes and saw determination there.

'Oh god,' she thought to herself, 'This is happening…he's going to kiss me.' Her breath spiked and her heart stuttered and her face went as red a tomato. There was only an inch between them now.

Suddenly the train lurched to a sudden stop, causing their foreheads to crack against each other. Levy went down, seeing stars, "Owww." She put a hand over her forehead, feeling a pounding headache coming on behind her eyes. Once she could see straight again, she looked up at Gajeel, who was staring at her in silence, a hand to his own forehead, "You have a hard head shrimp."

"Thanks so do you." She bit back, her tone less than warm. She sat up slowly, putting her head between her knees. After another fifteen minutes the train came to a complete stop and she slowly stood, trying to reach for her bag. Gajeel watched her with a smirk for a moment before getting it down for her, handing her the book that she had abandoned on the seat. She looked up at him, "Thank you." She said softly, her cheeks turning pink.

Gajeel grunted in response and headed off the train and onto the platform, inhaling deeply and in relief. Levy wasn't far behind him, tossing her bag over her shoulder. She was busy looking for where they needed to go for the job when she felt a nudge against her shoulder. She looked up Gajeel.

His cheek that was facing her was lightly tinted pink, "Thanks for helping me shrimp." He gave her a rare genuine smile.

She blushed hard, "Y-you're welcome." She jumped when he ruffled her hair, and flushed extremely hard.

"Let's get this job done." His face back to its normal half scowl in half a second. He shoved his hands into his pockets and began walking into the village, Levy sprinting to keep up with her shorter legs.

They asked around the town for a few hours for any more recent reports. The group in question had been reckless and left more than enough evidence to their identity in their wake.

It wasn't long before they found the criminals, in the middle of heist no less. Gajeel had no problem taking down the trouble making humans. He used his iron hand to take them all out in a single punch. He smiled that self-proud grin of his and dragged them to the police station and dropped them off there. The policemen on duty seemed a bit startled at first, but quickly snapped cuffs over the beaten men's hands and hauled them to their feet, taking them inside.

Levy informed him that they still had to find the mage. Gajeel thought, "How are we going to do that? Are we just going to wait until he shows up?"

"No. We don't have time to wait for his next attack, so we lure him out with bait."

"That would work…except he isn't a wild animal Shortie."

"I know that! Stupid Gajeel." She mumbled the last part, "Let's just continue asking around for a bit longer. Okay?"

He huffed in annoyance that he couldn't immediately punch someone else's face in and slumped down the street.

Levy followed after him and talked to the residents. They gave vague descriptions of the man who was terrorizing the village by stealing priceless artifacts. One woman stout woman with two shrieking children at their skirts gave them the breakthrough that they needed.

"The management at the museum is rather worried about displaying that new exhibit. That head dress alone would set anyone up for a life of luxury. But just imagine what would happen if he got his greasy hands on the rest of the pieces!" she snapped at her kids to be quiet and shooed them back into the house, screeching like a mad woman. Levy awkwardly backed away from the house, Gajeel cringing at the banshee shrieking his sensitive hearing was picking up. The two speed walked away and the Dragon Slayer massaged his temples, a headache coming on.

Levy patted his shoulder in sympathy as she thought, "I think we should plan a stakeout at the museum tonight."

The only response that Levy got was a grunt from the pained Gajeel. She took that as the only response she got and began walking towards the museum.

***Later that night***

Levy sat against one of the only blank walls of the museum, watching Gajeel pace back and forth like a caged panther. He was completely silent like one, not even his boots made a noise on the floor.

They waited for hours, Gajeel never halting his steps. Over the last hour he had begun staring at her every time he made a circuit and Levy was about to tell him to sit down when there was a sudden popping sound. Levy jumped to her feet, but Gajeel had already pounced on the noise, and a high pitched shriek rang out from under the Dragon Slayer. Levy ran over and caught his wrist and inspected who was pinned under Gajeel.

It was a small boy, around the age of ten, his brown hair in disarray from being so suddenly knocked over, his eyes wide in terror.

"A-are you the person who's been stealing the artifacts?" Levy asked, an extremely shocked expression on her face.

The child suddenly became brave when she spoke, "What's it to ya?"

Gajeel snarled in his face, "Don't get wise pipsqueak. Answer her."

He flinched, "I'm only doing it because my mom is sick." His voice wavered slightly, "I can't afford the doctor bills and I'm too young to get a job. That's why I've been stealing the artifacts."

"What about your dad? Where is he?" Levy asked, tugging Gajeel off the boy.

"Six feet under."

Levy gave him a sympathetic look, "I'm sorry." The only response she got was a sigh from the little boy.

"If you have to take me to jail, can you please make sure my mom is taken care of? She's all that I have left." He looked up at them, tears in his eyes, "If she dies, I'll be all alone. I don't want to be alone." He hiccupped.

Levy maternal instinct kicked in and she wrapped her arms around him in a comforting hug, "It's okay. We will help you. But first you have to do something for us."

He looked up at her, "A-anything." He sniffled, rubbing his eyes and cracking a tiny smile.


End file.
